Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body | 
 enlarge | Author: Neil Shubin
Publisher: Pantheon
Category: Book
List Price: $24.00
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Rating:  65 reviews
Sales Rank: 826
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 240
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.7 x 1
ISBN: 0375424474
Dewey Decimal Number: 611
EAN: 9780375424472
Publication Date: January 15, 2008
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Oliver Sacks on Your Inner Fish
Since the 1970 publication of Migraine, neurologist Oliver Sacks's unusual and fascinating case histories of "differently brained" people and phenomena--a surgeon with Tourette's syndrome, a community of people born totally colorblind, musical hallucinations, to name a few--have been marked by extraordinary compassion and humanity, focusing on the patient as much as the condition. His books include The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Awakenings (which inspired the Oscar-nominated film), and 2007's Musicophilia. He lives in New York City, where he is Professor of Clinical Neurology at Columbia University.
 Your Inner Fish is my favorite sort of book--an intelligent, exhilarating, and compelling scientific adventure story, one which will change forever how you understand what it means to be human. The field of evolutionary biology is just beginning an exciting new age of discovery, and Neil Shubin's research expeditions around the world have redefined the way we now look at the origins of mammals, frogs, crocodiles, tetrapods, and sarcopterygian fish--and thus the way we look at the descent of humankind. One of Shubin's groundbreaking discoveries, only a year and a half ago, was the unearthing of a fish with elbows and a neck, a long-sought evolutionary "missing link" between creatures of the sea and land-dwellers. My own mother was a surgeon and a comparative anatomist, and she drummed it into me, and into all of her students, that our own anatomy is unintelligible without a knowledge of its evolutionary origins and precursors. The human body becomes infinitely fascinating with such knowledge, which Shubin provides here with grace and clarity. Your Inner Fish shows us how, like the fish with elbows, we carry the whole history of evolution within our own bodies, and how the human genome links us with the rest of life on earth. Shubin is not only a distinguished scientist, but a wonderfully lucid and elegant writer; he is an irrepressibly enthusiastic teacher whose humor and intelligence and spellbinding narrative make this book an absolute delight. Your Inner Fish is not only a great read; it marks the debut of a science writer of the first rank. (Photo Elena Seibert) A Note from Author Neil Shubin This book grew out of an extraordinary circumstance in my life. On account of faculty departures, I ended up directing the human anatomy course at the University of Chicago medical school. Anatomy is the course during which nervous first-year medical students dissect human cadavers while learning the names and organization of most of the organs, holes, nerves, and vessels in the body. This is their grand entrance to the world of medicine, a formative experience on their path to becoming physicians. At first glance, you couldn't have imagined a worse candidate for the job of training the next generation of doctors: I'm a fish paleontologist. It turns out that being a paleontologist is a huge advantage in teaching human anatomy. Why? The best roadmaps to human bodies lie in the bodies of other animals. The simplest way to teach students the nerves in the human head is to show them the state of affairs in sharks. The easiest roadmap to their limbs lies in fish. Reptiles are a real help with the structure of the brain. The reason is that the bodies of these creatures are simpler versions of ours. During the summer of my second year leading the course, working in the Arctic, my colleagues and I discovered fossil fish that gave us powerful new insights into the invasion of land by fish over 375 million years ago. That discovery and my foray into teaching human anatomy led me to a profound connection. That connection became this book. Click on thumbnails for larger images  |  |  | | The crew removing the first Tiktaalik in 2004 | Ted Daeschler and Neil Shubin propecting for new sites (Credit: Andrew Gillis) | The valley where Tiktaalik was discovered (credit: Ted Daeschler, Academy of Natural Sciences) |  |  | | The models of Tiktaalik being constructed for exhibition (Tyler Keillor, University of Chicago) | Me with one of the models (John Weinstein, Field Museum) |
Product Description
Why do we look the way we do? What does the human hand have in common with the wing of a fly? Are breasts, sweat glands, and scales connected in some way? To better understand the inner workings of our bodies and to trace the origins of many of today's most common diseases, we have to turn to unexpected sources: worms, flies, and even fish.
Neil Shubin, a leading paleontologist and professor of anatomy who discovered Tiktaalik—the "missing link" that made headlines around the world in April 2006—tells the story of evolution by tracing the organs of the human body back millions of years, long before the first creatures walked the earth. By examining fossils and DNA, Shubin shows us that our hands actually resemble fish fins, our head is organized like that of a long-extinct jawless fish, and major parts of our genome look and function like those of worms and bacteria.
Shubin makes us see ourselves and our world in a completely new light. Your Inner Fish is science writing at its finest—enlightening, accessible, and told with irresistible enthusiasm.
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 Embrace Your Inner Fish January 25, 2008
Carl Flygare (San Jose, CA USA)
236 out of 248 found this review helpful
"What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an angel! In apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world! The paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me: no, nor woman neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so."
- Shakespeare's Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Act II, Scene II
In "Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body" author Neil Shubin, a biologist and paleontologist at the University of Chicago and the Field Museum, deftly answers Hamlet's '...what is this quintessence of dust?' query - the short answer is a highly modified fish!
How human 'form and moving,' along with 'noble in reason,' can be inferred from our deep-time ancestors is exciting science, eloquently explored in Shubin's lucid, engaging and accessible prose. Throughout his career Shubin's trendsetting approach split research between anatomical, biological, embryological and paleontological pursuits - all in an effort to understand the evolutionary and developmental mechanisms that transformed proto-limbs into fins, legs, wings, and in 'the paragon of animals,' hands (excuse the anthrochauvinism).
Shubin's innovative approach (integrative biology) was revolutionary in the late 1990s and fundamentally guided the development of evo-devo (evolutionary development), by bucking the trend toward increasing specialization encountered in many scientific disciplines. The insights generated by Shubin's multi-disciplinary approach helped identify which genes changed as lobe-finned fish transitioned into amphibians.
Today Shubin works in a crowded field, but continues to make spectacular discoveries. Peer-reviewed papers routinely depend on hypothesis synthesized from data provided by fossils, genes and embryos. Recently an experiment utilizing embryonic mice switched the mouse Prx1 gene regulatory element with the Prx1 region from a bat - although these species are separated by millions of years of evolution the resulting transgenic mice displayed abnormally long forelimbs.
In 2006 Shubin and his colleagues caught the world's attention with Tiktaalik roseae. This 370 million year old (mid Devonian) 'fishibian' exhibited many tetrapod limb features in its robust fins, including some wrist bones. While Tiktaalik roseae was being exhumed from the frozen artic - at a location predicted by geological, paleontological, and evolutionary theory - fellow researchers back in Chicago uncovered vital clues about the transition from ocean to terra firma by studying the genes that shape the fins of sharks and paddlefish.
"Your Inner Fish" weaves these and other discoveries into a brilliant anatomy lecture. Shubin deconstructs our eyes, ears, noses and hands to demonstrate the common ancestry shared by all extant (or extinct) animals. He also explains how networks of genes that initially express simple traits can expand through mechanisms such as gene duplication and genetic drift, creating networks that can build complex and novel structures such as jaws and heads (in vertebrates) evolved from primordial gill arches.
Quirky evolutionary relics - ranging from hiccups to hernias - are also explored. Thank your 'fish and tadpole past' for hiccups. Men painfully recapitulate the torturous path taken by the testacles during embryonic development whenever they develop a hernia later in life.
Throughout "Your Inner Fish" Shubin articulates how science works. Although creationism and Intelligent Design are refreshingly omitted, this book guts the pretensions and conceits prattled by latter-day lungfish pushing religious agendas in lieu of research and superstition instead of science.
This is a wonderful and insightful book. Highly recommended - excellent companion volumes include Relics of Eden: The Powerful Evidence of Evolution in Human DNA (reviewed seperately) by Daniel J. Fairbanks, Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why It Matters by Donald R. Prothero, At the Water's Edge: Fish with Fingers, Whales with Legs, and How Life Came Ashore but Then Went Back to Sea by Carl Zimmer, and The Age of Everything: How Science Explores the Past by Matthew Hedman. For a more detailed technical discussion of early tetrapod evolution try Gaining Ground: The Origin and Early Evolution of Tetrapods by Jennifer A. Clack
a truly great book! January 17, 2008
David W. Straight (knoxville, tennessee United States)
128 out of 149 found this review helpful
This is the most enjoyable book I've read on evolution since Gould's fine Wonderful Life. Shubin not only combines great skills in paleontology and anatomy with an insatiable curiosity, but he also has a rare gift at writing as well. The book looks at aspects of human anatomy and senses--hands, smell, hearing, vision, etc--and traces them back--way back! Some of this, of course, has been done before, but Shubin writes with a flair, a clarity, and a precision that brings it all into a new focus. There is also an emphasis on DNA, in particular recent DNA experiments that combined with the paleontology and anatomy makes a very compelling case.
Shubin starts off with the search for a link between fish and land animals that took him to the Canadian Arctic and culminated in the discovery of Tiktaalik--a fish with a flattened head and flippers that made it look rather like a very primitive alligator in ways. The author then shows the evolution of necks and limbs. He does the same with some of the organs such as smell and vision, and shows their evolution as well.
The book is perhaps at its best in its discussion of the role of DNA in evolution. It is now known that it is possible to turn on a gene that is responsible for the development of an eye, for example. So you can create a fruitfly with an eye almost anywhere you want--such as on a leg--and many of these are functional, although in a primitive way. But it gets even more interesting. Suppose you take a gene from a mouse that controls the development of an eye, and implant it into a fruitfly, what happens? You get a fruitfly eye, not a mouse eye. This says a lot about the basic building blocks of life.
The book does have one major flaw. At 200 pages it's way too short! If the writing were dry or stiff, 200 pages would be sufficient, but with Shubin's thoroughly enjoyable writing and choice of subjects, I would have preferred 600 pages.
Fun book for a non-scientist January 20, 2008
Cathy (Pennsylvania, USA)
119 out of 138 found this review helpful
I didn't want to be able to pass a college course on paleontology, just pick up some interesting information, and this was a great book for me. I started browsing it because I liked the title, but the writing style really drew me in. Shubin is engaging, funny, and informative. He gives enough science background so you can understand the discussions, AND NO MORE. This book left me with a deep appreciation for the wonder of the modern human body. Great information for the casual reader!
The thrill of discovery March 18, 2008
wiredweird (Earth, or somewhere nearby)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
What do a fossil bed in arctic sandstone, a med student's dissection lab, the Field Museum, and genetic studies of limb development have in common? Neil Shubin.
This wonderful author draws on his wide experience as educator, researcher, and awed little boy to take the reader on a tour through the reader him-(or her-)self. He starts with features as visible as fingers - quite a development by the way, with many intermediate steps documented in the fossil record. Then he works his way back to the earliest weeks of fetus-hood, showing deep similarities between humans and every other species that has a fetus, and some that don't. The structural similarities aren't enough, though. He cites research that determines which genes control specific features of development, the same way in fruit flies or mice. He even points to studies that find similar genes in mice and sharks, despite millions of years of refinement and divergence, and shows that the mouse gene product has the same effect on shark development as on baby mice.
Shubin achieves the ideal balance of scientific rigor and conversational clarity. He summarizes millions of years of evolution, maybe hundreds of millions, in homeobox development genes, using just a few pages and a few diagrams. Although some pictures contained elements I found misleading, they generally captured the essence of genetic and anatomical structure, but without the faux intellectualism of complex terms - the facts are clear and simple, even when he spares us the big words and lab drudgery. As he found out first-hand, even pre-schoolers can see the evidence and draw correct conclusions.
For all the detail that he provides, there are volumes more that he never mentions. For example, a chemical mechanism that affects hunger in monkeys traces back to nutritional stress response in yeast - not that we descend from yeast, but that we descend from a common ancestor with the same problem that we have to solve today, and with a solution that keeps on working.
By the end of this brief book, Shubin not only locates the human twig on the tree of life, he helps us appreciate how the flowering on every branch binds it all together into one beautiful whole. He shows evolution as such a wonderful pageant that I'm happy and proud to be part of it, even if my participation is only as product and observer. He also shows how studies in fish and fruit flies predict specific genetic diseases in humans, and how knowledge of geology and evolution let him pinpoint, to within a few hundred yards, one of about three places on earth where a specific moment in fishes' conquest of land was likely to reveal itself in fossils. Scientists do science because it's the biggest thrill they know how to make a living at. Shubin shares that excitement as very few authors ever have done.
-- wiredweird
If only public schools used books like this as texts March 14, 2008
Jerry Saperstein (Evanston, IL USA)
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
I am a proponent of interesting more young people in science and technology. Alas, most American youth attend public schools where teaching real science and technology is essentially unheard of.
Books like Neil Shubin's "Your Inner Fish" could go a long way in showing a young person just how fascinating science and technology can be, not to mention how vital scientists and technologists are to our nation's future.
Shubin brings a wonderful enthusiasm to his calling here which is to demonstrate that we humans owe what we are to the many, many animals that have preceeded us, including fish, worms, tadpoles, amphibians and reptiles. In short, we as humans are bits and pieces of almost all that has gone before us.
Shubin makes it all interesting as he traces the development of the human ear from the jawbones of fish. Or informs us that the human eye is only one manifestation of something far more fascinating: that the eye developed at all millions upon millions of years ago.
Shubin brings together paleontology, DNA and other specialties to show how science has developed and begun to unlock the mysteries of human evolution. For example, why do primates see in color when so many other animals don't? Shubin discusses a theory that may come as an interesting surprise to many. It did to me.
Why are human males prone to hernias? Hint: look inside sharks and other fish for the answer.
There is a richness in Shubin's book that is simply not found is most books on science. It is a beautiful thing to behold. He is never boring, never tedious and rarely uses polysylabic terms. This is science for the masses: fascinating, interesting and never dull. New facts on every page and never overwhelming.
Shubin makes science interesting and accessible and his book deserves to be in every public school classroom. Failing that, buy this book and give it to the young people in your family. You will be doing them, our nation and our world a great favor.
Jerry
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